The Etna Lions varsity baseball team put on an impressive display of hitting on Wednesday, finishing with 22 runs in two games against Phoenix, Ore., on the road.

The problem for the Lions was the Pirates also hit the ball well and ended up with more runs as Etna dropped both contests 11-10 and 16-11 at the Pirates home field in Talent.

"It was a slug fest," Etna High head coach Collin Krueger said. "The hiting was great by both teams."

The conditions were quite windy, which affected where the ball went, as the wind made things interesting.

"It was hard on the outfielders," Krueger said. "It's hard to judge a ball when the wind changes the direction of where the ball drops."

Etna fell to 5-6 overall while Phoenix improved to 4-0.

In game one, the Lions had bases loaded with no outs the top of the first. By the end of the inning, Etna earned three runs and seemed to be on the right track. But the Pirates quickly showed this was going to be a high scoring game as they smacked in five runs the bottom of the first.The runs continued to come for the Lions as they took an 7-5 advantage the top of the second inning.The game continued to be a back and forth affair as both teams kept connecting with the ball and bringing in runs.

In the seventh inning, with the scored tied at 10-10, the Lions left runners on second and third base as the game went into extra innings. The Pirates won the game thanks to a triple and a sacrifice fly in the bottom of the eighth.

While Krueger believes his team should have won the first game, he said he impressed by the way they hit and "never let up."

Ricky Reynolds went 3-for-5 with an RBI. Trevor Stacher went 2-for-4 with two RBI's. Andrew Stone finished 2-for-5 with two RBI's. Tyler Murphy went 2-for-5 with two runs.

In game two, the Lions went on a tear early and scored the first seven runs. The Pirates proved that there is a reason they have been considered a good team in the region for awhile and tied things up at 7-7 in the fourth. In the fifth inning, Phoenix brought in six runs as they held onto the lead to take game two by five runs.

Preston Munson went 2-for-4 with three RBI's. Kainen Krueger finished 2-for-4 with one RBI. Murphy went 3-for-5 with two runs. Nick Meyer finished 2-for-5 with three runs. Alex Berry went 2-for-4 with an RBI.

Krueger said the two games showed the squad still has work to do, including the need to be more consistent on defense and reducing errors.

Page 2 of 2 - The Lions head back to Oregon on Friday for a doubleheader against Rogue River starting at 1 p.m.